Hebrews 4:13b "...Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

Monday, July 27, 2009

sick vs. healthy

One of the days while the Vineyard was here, we had a medical outreach. I truly was not much a part of it except one afternoon I went to visit and see how it was going and just played with the village children that were there waiting for whatever family member was being seen by one of the doctors or nurses.

Anyway, I asked Chris (the other staff man here) what is the worse he had seen physically and he talked about a man with a sore/hole in his leg that needed to be cleaned out. They nurse was cleaning the wound out and her hand just kept going in and going farther and the man didn't flinch at all. Then one of the interns said that he saw a woman treated for a water parasite and as she left she stopped by the village waterhole and pulled up some water for her trip back (which is full of parasites), and the list could go on....

But, as I was hearing about these medical issues, I started thinking about how sometimes we are sick long enough we think it is healthy. We don't even flinch at the alcohol going in and cleaning out the bacteria because it is all dead around the hole, or we numbly go draw water from a parasite filled well.... that we learn to function to cater to our sickness. Interesting, isn't it? I then began to think, spiritually, if we go too long in one "sickness" or "sin", we might start to make excuses for it and rely on the sin because it is now normal..... Because if we tried to get healthy, it would hurt and be hard and it might cause, initially anyway, anxiety.... because if we tried to get healthy, I would then start worrying about my kids drinking out of the dirty well, or be concerned with my husband going to work with a huge hole in his leg and that would cause more stress and effort than just to go on with the status quo.

Our sickness becomes the rule and the exception is health. Health becomes the abnormal and why bother when sickness has become the comfort.

So, then I went to the idea of where in my life am I sick and don't recognize it anymore because I have just thought this way a really long time. I want health even though sometimes it feels like an uphill battle, constantly needing attention and giving to the Lord. I want to read His Word and not be numb but be encouraged to press on and live life in a way of health and healing. I want the medical clinics to go consistently enough that they (the people here in the village) start to recognize that there is hope to healthy living and if they also choose to press on they will recognize that they hope is attainable and worth the effort of the uphill battle. That Christ can give them health and the abundant life that yes, may be more of a challenge than not, but worth it every single time. Every single time!